The Path of Kane

Night of the walking dead......

What is worse than a snake pit?????

22

FEB/15

It is at greatest height of the sun during July 9th 1603 and the group decides to approach the chief’s son telling him that he must confess to his father the disease that plagues him to which he complies with our request. Franz confers with the chief and asks for his only reward to be a water skin of the finest wine the village has to offer. I notice the chief sporting a puzzled look as Franz makes this request and Dorn further explains through translation that the village grows no grapes but the Wanders would be welcome to take a water skin of the homemade grain alcohol that is produced in small quantities during the months of May and June. Our trip returns us to a northward track deeper into the savanna where the plateau displays sloping terrain and gently rolling hills and without any events of true importance until July 13th just after the sun’s highest setting. Some distance ahead traveling the same road, we observe a horse drawn caged wagon of sorts with and two men on horseback as we approach the situation defines itself. This is small group of white slavers collecting healthy dark skinned native to send to the new world that lies far to the west of this Dark Continent. Dorn and I immediately look to one another I believe with the same understanding that these men must be brought to justice in whatever way our Lord may see fit although the Wanders will help them find their way to God. Dorn greets them in river tongue and Franz joins the discussion trying to discover their true intentions even though we all know the business that they are immerse themselves in. One of the men spits upon the reddish brown soil insulting Dorn or us just by the facial expressions he is sporting. The talking continues between Dorn and the slaver armed with a blunderbuss and threats are plentiful as I tell my fellow Wander to insist they release the slaves and that we would only ask once. The wagon mounted slaver threatens us again I react by transforming into a more suitable fighting form that being a brown bear. Unfortunately I absorb a full blast from the blunderbuss as the melee begins and other slavers are quick to arm themselves with both pistols and sabers. Dorn runs and leaps pulling the slaver off of his dark brown 14 hand horse. The other mounted slaver uses his horse to stomp Franz not damaging his body only his breastplate armor while Dorn continues to grapple with the dismounted slaver. I use my bear claws to render the blunderbuss wielding slave trader a non threat after receiving major wounds from both the enemy on the horse drawn wagon. Franz his still trading blows with his evil slaver and finally does him in with a deep gash to the head. While Dorn eliminates the threat directly in his vicinity and then he moves to assist me with the remaining combatant on the wagon. Dorn begins running after and leaps onto the team of horses wrestling the pair to a halt as the wagon driver attempts to flee to save his own skin. Dorn and I collect our prisoners shackling them together using their own manacles to secure both feet and hands then throwing them into the caged wagon. We question both men and I use my talents of insight to detect their willingness to repent and walk the right hand or the good path. Both slavers untruthfully claim to repent and never slave again but I am able to detect their deceitfulness. The group unanimously agrees to sentence them to death by hanging from the nearest Acacia tree placing them side by side with a sign that reads both in english and river tongue: Slavers.

We continue our northward journey and escort our freed slaves to their rightful home village after we collect the spoils of our victory. The list is brief: 2 pistols, a blunderbuss, ammo, 4 horses, leg irons, manacles and a wagon. One of our freed slaves responds to Dorn’s questioning about any assist needed or scary stuff. We arrive and descend upon the village in need after we drop off the other men to their home towns. The village is small, walled completely around with a 4 foot high barrier made of stone and mortar. Dorn locates a native warrior from the village and begins to converse. The second villager we happen upon speaks english and admits they have a problem with a “walking dead.” He explains that other villages are experiencing the same problem but this village has not seen any for weeks. None of the "walking dead’ are recognizable as coming from our village. Once Dorn speaks with the chief he explains our combat prowess after killing a Kishi and the conversation expands. They also admit seeing one of the dead that they recognize but that villager was taken by slavers months ago. These dead come at least a few times every moon in the sky and climb over the wall and snatch up people indiscriminately. We are invited to an evening feast mostly because of our skill at killing demons and may be slavers.
The group agrees to split the evening into watches of three hours each with Franz taking the first. I imagined a dream but then realized that it was no such thing but that of Franz yelling for help. I what gear I can and quickly scan the area seeing at least 6 JuJu zombies over the village wall and Franz entangled with one of the walking dead. I use my belt of action to summon a spirit warrior and equip him with a masterwork spear. I am engaged with three zombies and block one attack while another tears into my flesh. I finally eliminate those zombies using my summoned warriors armed with spears. Using powerful blows from his fists ends the worldly existence of three walkers he was fighting. Franz finishes off another he is in melee with while my warriors assist some of the villagers that are embroiled with other walkers.
I transform into an owl so as to tail the zombie kidnappers while observing from the sky. Dorn continues on foot and we spot the large natural termite like mound nearby so Dorn trips the JuJu zombie who was carrying the young female villager. The trio sets up an observation post to watch the rock structure close enough to respond to threats but far enough to be hidden during a waning crescent moon. Two figures appear as if waiting for someone in an entrance carved into the solid rock as we send Dorn to get a closer look upon the creatures. Invisible Dorn sneaks up and punches them both out as well follow 30 or so feet behind not long after Franz kills another coming to respond to the commotion with a single mighty swing of his silvered long sword. Cautiously we entered the natural tunnel with Dorn leads using some stealth a short time later we can hear noises as we enter a T-intersection. Following the sounds we locate a trio of native in search of intruders. Dorn quietly approaches punching one native with an enhanced fist killing him instantly stepping over the body he swings but his fist is meet by the medium shield one of the warriors positioned in the hallway. An oversized chicken type animal attacked from behind us and Dorn killed it with a one-two combo from his fists. Two of the enemy soldiers were put to sleep and I coup de grace those sleeping as Franz begins to engage two zombies and a witch doctor in the other direction. After a brief fray Dorn knocks out the witch doctor with multiple blows of his fists while Franz cuts down both Zombies with his shiny silvered long sword but we pick up the sounds of zombies down the hallway. Only a short distance down the hallway we come across a pit full of a dozen zombies that we suspect was used as a kill pit of anyone captured. After waking up the evil spell caster Dorn and I decide to feed the doctor to his loyal subjects as it would be an end well deserved then we destroy all the zombies within the pit. After a search we recover a small amount of treasure and return triumphant to the village to report our findings.